KUWAIT FOLLOWS THROUGH ON PROMISE TO HELP INJURED

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUWAIT 000896 SIPDIS NEA/ARP, NEA/I, NEA/RA, E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/08/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM MOPS KU IZ SUBJECT: KUWAIT FOLLOWS THROUGH ON PROMISE TO HELP INJURED IRAQIS REF: KUWAIT 849 Classified By: Political Counselor Pete O'Donohue for reasons 1.4 b and d ¶1. (U) Kuwaiti news media widely reported on September 04 the arrival in KUWAIT for medical treatment of some 25 Iraqis injured in August 19 truck bomb blasts in Baghdad. The gesture fulfills an instruction issued by Amir Shaykh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al Sabah (reported reftel) to his goveQent to assist in the transport and subsequent medical care of Iraqi victims of this incident. According toQress reports, the victims were being treated in five separate Kuwaiti hospitals. ¶2. (C) Press accounts noted that the victims were transported from Baghdad on a Kuwaiti medical evacuation aircraft. Salah Al-Mutairi, a Counselor in MFA's Arab World Department confirmed to POLCOUNS on September 07 that the aircraft in question (per reftel) was a KUWAIT Air Force plane; as such, the medevac marks a bilateral first. Al-Mutairi did not have information on whether additional victims would be offered treatment. ********************************************* ********* For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: visit Kuwait's Classified Website at: http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Kuwa it ********************************************* ********* JONES